Cooling of a heated surface with an impinging water spray

Abstract

Several important parameters, such as liquid mass flux, droplet size distribution, droplet velocity, and heating target conditions (roughness and surface temperature) are involved in the industrial spray cooling heat transfer process. In this study, we investigated the effect of liquid mass flux, heating target roughness, and the droplet size on the droplet wall direct contact heat transfer in spray cooling phenomena. Three different conditions of surface roughness were investigated. The measurement of test surface temperature was performed using a non-intrusive method, i. e., using an infrared thermometer. The droplet size distribution of water spray was measured with Malvern 2600. The results indicated that the most influential parameters were the liquid mass flux and the surface roughness. The droplet size and the velocity played a less important role in the direct contact heat transfer because the interactions between droplets were very strong in a dense spray. The smooth surface showed the highest heat transfer among the surfaces tested. At high air pressure ([7] kPa), however, the degree of roughness did not affect much the heat transfer rate.